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Nature Cell Biology 8, 1323–1325 (1 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/ncb1206-1323

Voltage sparks a GPCR

Peter Stanfield

The resting potential difference across cell membranes seems tiny at –70mV, yet it exists across a lipid bilayer only 3 nm thick. As a result, the membrane voltage field is approximately 200,000 V cm|[minus]|1— large enough to influence the conformation of membrane-spanning proteins.